Sunday, May 31, 2015

I believe I was always who I am right now but I was always afraid to really show my true self. I was even afraid to admit to myself who I really am.

I am still trying to figure out who I am, but I am on my way.

Who am I?

I am love, peace, magic, happiness, laughter, silliness, joy, believer in the power of the moon.

I am the woman who walked through the mall today and smiled at everyone. I was so blissfully happy. It was an ordinary day nothing exciting happened. Hmmmmmm, wait.... I guess something exciting did happen. I just came home from going to my first Mom and Me Girl Scout camp with my 9 year old. It was her first time there. I have been there many times with my own mom as a Girl Scout. It was fun revisiting a place my mom and I shared memories at. I had so much fun with my daughter we really did need some alone girl time. I know you read my blog dear Robin, I love you and had a blast hanging out with you at camp.

My sweet Robin is sleeping in my bed right now next to me as I type with her arm flung across my back. ......I should sleep as well.

Friday, May 29, 2015

So the school year is ending for a lot of my friends but we just keep chugging along always. Especially after buying a farm unexpectedly and having a baby, Schooling has been pretty light during the last 18 months or so.

After doing our yearly assessment tests I was happy to discover no one is behind and still rather ahead. Yay! I still rock this homeschooling thing!

Evaluation of myself this last year..... things have been quite hectic trying to get 2 houses ready Our new house was was not move in ready nor was our old house ready to be rented. 6 months later we just got our house rented they move in next week and our new house is slowly coming along. We still have rooms under construction and many room still need to be painted, but all but 3 boxes are now unpacked. I am still trying to figure out where to put it all though. It is a bigger house but there is not much room for storage totes, so I having to take the time to re organize and configure where these items will now go.

Starting now I vow to have less of this in my life

And start having more of this

I don't care if my house is messy, go ahead judge me I do not care. At the end of the day I want to look around and know I had fun with my kids.

Moving forward: schooling will be a bit more different. More hands on messy stuff that takes lots of time and mess. More imagination play that includes me in it. Less group activities with others. Our house needs to be re centered. We need to focus on our family and our new farm.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Potion making with natural elements
Some fresh air and potion making, I gave them containers and set them outside to create a potion.
Rules: They could put whatever they wanted in it from outside but they had to tell me what their potion does.

Potion #2 (middle bottle) made by Robin
This purple elixir can make the user invisible.

Potion # 3 (The one with a missing cap)
This complex potion was a mix of many elements found around the pond including toad juice ( no toads were harmed during this potion making session) This potion makes tornado.

Mr. Toad who generously offered some goo off his back for potion #3!

We started reading and making stuff from this herbal book, yes it is 2009 but the information does not change.

A great book to get kids into herbal crafting.

You can click HERE to check out their website we only have the cinnamon issue but I am considering buying more issues, they are great fun for adults and kids.

Doing some fun blind tasting of jelly beans having kids figure out the flavor. I got some interesting flavor answers but the ones everyone got right was: Coconut, bubblegum and pear.

The little boys did a Harry Potter worksheet and came us with some new flavor beans Minty mint, Double orange and Burrito

I only bought the yummy flavor beans not the Harry Potter ones. I have tried those with Falcon 7 years ago and they most certainly taste like what they say: vomit, dirt, earwax etc... Yup I tried them all thinking there was noway they would actually be accurate, They were Every time!

Choosing the tree in which their special wands will come from. I let me choose whichever tree they liked the look of best then we did some nature studies on each.They looked through pictures in this book to choose their tree

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Overtaken by ticks, they are everywhere. First summer at the Farm house and I had no idea there would be this many ticks. I knew there would be a lot but picking 5 off my child's head who was only playing out side for an hour is CRAZY!

So the kids get checked every time they come in from outside and we do nightly whole body tick checks.

Just something I am going to have to deal with out here in the woods

We have baby guineas but they do not come to the areas my kids most play in, I am working on trying to coax them to the areas where I would like them to clear ticks from. Here is just 4 of the babies eating with are oldest Rooster ( aka Man chicken )

So I made an all natural bug repellent with Essential oils and some other stuff.

Wishful thinking

As for the ticks If I pull them off a child I put them in a baggie and write the location found on child and the date. The ER doc told me a few years ago to do this with Ticks because if you start to develop symptoms then they can test the tick faster than the person for Lyme or Rocky Mountain Spotted fever.

I have about 20 ticks so far that have been carefully plucked off a child..

Cooking dinner with the stove pulled out because I am in the middle of painting it. Don't mind the time it really was dinner time but I had to re plug in my stove to cook!What was I making you ask? Quinoa with garlic rice, mashed cauliflower and chicken.

Baby C kept trying to help Papabid fix a screw behind the stove.

Finally got my maps back on the wall. I am planning to add 3 clocks set at different times zones around the world and a clothesline for multicultural art pieces the kids do.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

My body has spoken and it seems 5 is my magic number. I wasn't sure if more kids were in our future, we were both open to it but at this point I need to say NO More!

I have had 5 healthy pregnancies with 5 healthy babies. Every time I got pregnant I would think, am I gambling here?

I have had 5 perfect babies - my body now says NO MORE

I am 37 my Uterus has prolapsed causing quite a few issues and now I have an abdominal hernia. (very painful) No More babies for me. This will mean surgery only more tests will determine how soon and how serious. All these issues stem from having multiple pregnancies. I am so blessed to have 5,

Am I sad? YES but I am happy and blessed to have 5!

Interesting fact.... I was told I could not have children, Papa bird was told he could not have children we have 5, I am blessed.

Know one knows what the future hold but I plan to just "roll with it" like Duck always says :)

This is not how my story ends this is how my new chapter begins, life is good, life is full of changes.

Baby Birds In My Nest

Falcon - age 17 Junior in CollegeHe attends a local University and is majoring in Communication. Now a Korean certified black belt in Taekwondo. He likes playing video games like all boys and has fun playing with paper money on the stock market.

Robin - age 11 grade (7)This was the first bird she was able to identify at 2.5 yrs old. She loves worms just as much as the robin. She has a fantastic memory and is very sweet and caring. She loves horses and takes English riding lessons. She is obsessed with Sea turtles and all things ocean right now.

Duck-age 9 grade (4)My most difficult bird, he keeps me on my toes. He has a very Jekyll/ Hyde personality.Stole his sisters stuffed duck as soon as he could crawl and adopted it his. Loves polar bears more than any other animal. He is super active and loves hard work outside. You can usually find him 30 feet up in a tree.

Owl- age 8 grade( 4)My silent observer. He loves to cuddle and be right next to Mama bird at all times he learns very quickly and is super cuddly. Loves nature and is always picking up animals and bugs. He is the family hugger!

Canary - Age 3 ( preschool)

Loves music, dancing and singing. If there is no music on she will make her own and dance to her own beat.